A drug user cooks a dose of heroin in this file photo. Addicts in Florida are turning more to heroin as pain pills become scarce, an unintended consequence of the state's war on prescription pills.

Written by

Audra D.S. Burch
The Miami Herald

Kevin Foley stood before a judge in Broward County's drug court - fellow abusers sitting behind in him in the pews - talking about the fitful life of a recovering addict, the random drug tests, the counseling and what he hoped was his next, clean chapter.

Foley, 21, has been hooked on heroin for nearly two years. Before that, he was popping oxycodone and other prescription pills snapped up as Florida became a bustling marketplace of illegal pill mills. He turned to heroin after his drug of choice became too expensive. "I was chasing the next high," says Foley, who landed in drug court after a heroin ...